Everyone has their reasons
by Bluemutt
Summary: Annabeth Chase is doing what she normally does on a Friday night- study. However, she's torn away from her notes when she gets a suspicious text and someone knocks on her door. One-shot. (Thank you to those who read this, and please be kind if you review! owo)


Studying and making sure her grades were good had always been a priority, and she almost never went out. Most of the time, she could be found writing furiously, making sure that her notes were perfect. This particular night, she had a sort of urgency to her writing. There was a huge History test on Monday, and Annabeth's teacher was expecting her to do amazingly. She was determined to get an A.

Thalia always made fun of her, telling her that one day she would regret not going out, but the blonde always rolled her eyes at her friend. She was perfectly fine on her own, especially since she doubted anyone would even really want to hang out with her. Surely, her classmates had enough fun partying without her. She was certain that there would be beer, loud music, and pointless hooking-up- all things that made her want to hurl. She'd rather stay home than have to deal with seeing drunken 17-year-olds shoving their tongues down strangers' throats.

However, her note-taking was disrupted by the sound of her phone going off. Reaching for it, she frowned as she saw that there was a text from Thalia. It was past ten. Wasn't the punk usually out doing something right now? Reading the text, she frowned even more.

_Thals: 'Have fun. ;)'_

What was _that_ supposed to mean? Squinting at her phone screen, she was prepared to text back when someone knocked on her door. With a sigh, she hurried from her room, barely avoiding running into her father as he emerged from the room he shared with Annabeth's stepmom.

"Are you expecting company?" He asked his daughter, raising a hand to rub one of his eyes tiredly. He had always gone to bed early so that he could wake up early for his job. As much as he didn't appreciate being woken up, he was too tired right now to really show any negativity.

Glancing at her phone again before looking up at her dad, she shrugged, "It's probably just Thalia. You should go back to bed. You look like you were dragged up and down a mountain- plus, you have a meeting tomorrow, don't you?" Frederick blinked at her for a moment before he finally realized what she had said. He really was exhausted. Nodding a little, he shuffled back to his room and closed the door behind him. Letting out a sigh, Annabeth made her way down the stairs and opened the front door, not expecting what- _who_ -she would see.

Standing on her front porch was Percy Jackson. His dark hair was messy and partially covered his eyes and his lips were pulled into a lopsided smile. He looked... nervous. She had never seen him look _nervous_ before. Not that she had actually seen that much, or even really paid attention to his expressions, but still. When they would talk, the conversations never lasted too long and whenever they passed each others in the halls at school, he only just smiled at her. Those times, he seemed more confident. She stared at him for a few moments in shocked silence before clearing her throat. "Percy," she said finally, raising an eyebrow at him, "What brings you here in the middle of the night?"

She had to keep herself from asking why he was there at all, afraid that it would be too rude. But, then again, he had never been to her house before. That made another question pop into her mind- how did he know where she lived? Her thinking was cut short when his smile turned into a grin, his eyes dancing with amusement. "Can't I want to hang out with my _best friend_?" He joked, and Annabeth could feel her face heating. However, he shook his head and a more serious expression softened his features. "Nah, I wanted to, uh, tell you about something."

She blinked at him, confused. Did they have something to do for school that she had forgotten about? Had she left something behind and he wanted to tell her about it? "Tell me something?" She asked, frowning slightly. Stepping out of her house and shutting the door behind her, she leaned against it and waited for him to continue.

He watched her closely, shuffling his feet. Could she see him blushing? "Well..." He coughed, clearing his throat and turning away for a moment. He was quiet, but turned back a few seconds later. "Remember a month or so ago? Mrs. Dodds paired us up for that one project- what was it on again?" His eyes burned with an intensity that did nothing but make her face heat more.

"Uhh, yeah. It was on 'the importance of algebra'. Gosh, that was so pointless." She shook her head, remembering the day the project was first assigned. Their teacher had been the one to make all the class pairs, and Annabeth could remember Thalia booing at the fact that she was paired with her cousin, Nico. She was kind of unhappy with her partner, too, as Percy had always seemed like the type to never do work. But, things turned out better than she originally thought they would. He paid pretty good attention for a kid who couldn't sit still. While she wrote out most of the details and put everything into the actual powerpoint, he had done his share. In fact, he seemed eager to get work done. In the last ten minutes of class when they had already done what they needed for the day, he would ask her as many questions as possible. What her favorite color was, what type of books she read, what her parents acted like, etc. One of the most embarassing moments was when he asked her if she had a boyfriend, and she hurriedly shook her head, feeling as though her face was as red as a tomato. He just sat there and laughed, though there was something else in his eyes.

Percy smiled at the blonde, letting out a chuckle that drew her from her thoughts, "Yeah that. Anyway, I realized then that I wasn't happy just because I was paired with someone who was patient with me." She could see him swallow, as if he had to make himself continue. "I began to... notice things. The way your hair curls. Your grey eyes. The way you bite your lip when you read." She knew now that it had to be obvious that she was blushing. What was he trying to say? "Well, I realized after that it was more than just being content over being partnered with you. It took some encouraging from Leo, Jason, and even Thalia for me to even admit it."

"Admit what?"

"I like you, Annabeth Chase." Oh. She stared at him with wide eyes, unsure of how to respond. Honestly? She felt the same way, but had put off her feelings after telling herself that she was crazy. And as she thought about what he said more, Thalia's text appeared in her mind momentarily and she made a note to confront the dark-haired girl later.

As he stared at her, she felt like she could melt into the ground, and she was afraid that she would have to be the one to say something or do something before he did anything else. But, thankfully, he continued talking, saving her from the possibility of embarassing herself.

"And, I'd be very grateful if you would come with me. I know it's late, but I have something planned." He raised an eyebrow at her, smiling softly, his face almost (but not quite) as hot as hers.

She cleared her throat, willing herself to actually say something now. "And, uh, why should I do that?" Her voice was small as she made sure she wasn't the one to break their eye contact.

"Because of this." He moved too fast for her to guess what he was going to do, though she couldn't say she was exactly disappointed. He had closed the distance between them, pressing his lips to hers and kissing her more passionately than she had ever been kissed. With only a little bit of hesitation, she kissed him back. Yeah, she definitely wasn't disappointed.


End file.
